Rethinking Lifestyle

We have all used the term under-developed nations or under-developed regions. We may not have a definition at our fingertips, but we know what we mean when we say under-developed.

The Federal government has proposed a tax which, in five years time, will increase the price of gasoline $0.12. According to GasBuddy, the retail price of gasoline has fluctuated by $0.24 in the past year, $0.38 in the past two years, and $0.55 in the last five years.

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released another report. This panel came into being in 1988 when the need for an impartial, scientific panel to comment on climate change, became obvious.

I’ve been having a difficult time coping with the information in the latest IPCC report released two weeks ago.

I find it fascinating to track where our influences come from and where they lead us. My career path was not a straight line from knowing what I wanted to do when I grew up to actually doing that.

It’s that time of year again, the time when folks who have enjoyed cycling in summer, park their bikes. I say, whoa, not so fast!

In last week’s post, Wade Wiebe described some of his experience in building his strawbale garage. But why build strawbale?

Since my early 20’s I’ve dreamed of building a straw bale house. I love the deep windows and the smooth, warm aesthetic of the walls. Building with bales creates extremely energy-efficient homes using materials which themselves have very low embodied energy.

Most of us have been following the controversy surrounding the proposed Trans-Mountain Pipeline which is to carry crude oil and dibit from the Athabasca region of Northern Alberta to ocean ports in Burnaby and Vancouver.

Recently I was discussing a tax on carbon with some farmers. Readers of this blog know that I strongly advocate for a tax shift away from income to a tax on consumption, more specifically the consumption of fossil based energy – carbon.